The Epistle of 1 John is on the fellowship of the divine life. Chapters one, three, and five indicate strongly that sin is a problem to us. In chapter one sin and sins are dealt with. According to this chapter, sin damages our fellowship in the divine life.
In chapter three John says that he who practices sin is of the Devil (v. 8), and that everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin (v. 9). Then in verse 20 John says that if our heart blames us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. In verse 21 he goes on to say that if our heart does not blame us, we have boldness toward God. For our heart to blame us means that we are wrong in some way. This indicates that sin causes trouble to our conscience. Therefore, we need to have our conscience void of offense.
In chapter five we see something even more serious regarding sin. Sin not only interrupts our fellowship and causes our conscience to have no peace; sin may even cause physical death. According to the human concept, it may seem insignificant to come to the Lord’s table without discerning the Lord’s body (1 Cor. 11:29). Actually, it is extremely serious to come to the Lord’s table with a divisive spirit and thereby fail to discern the body. Because many of the believers at Corinth failed to discern the body, some became weak. That was a warning. Some who did not pay attention to this warning became ill. Eventually, those who would not heed even that warning died. In our opinion, they might not have committed a gross sin. Nevertheless, from the point of view of God’s government, certain of the Corinthians committed a sin unto death.
Sins, failures, mistakes, and trespasses may be viewed from different angles. From the human point of view, certain mistakes may seem minor. But from God’s point of view, especially from the perspective of His government, certain matters which are not serious in our sight are very serious indeed. For example, according to God’s government, Moses made a great mistake. In the sight of the Israelites, what he did was minor. However, Moses made a serious mistake in relation to God’s government. By this we see that it makes a difference from what angle someone’s sin or failure is viewed.
I definitely do not have the intention of frightening anyone. I simply want to point out the truth concerning the seriousness of sin.
If you study the situation of those who have rebelled against the church, you will see that to oppose the church, to try to damage the church, or to rebel against the authority of the church is a very serious matter. At least, such rebellion causes great loss to one’s spiritual life. In more than fifty years’ experience in the church life, I have never seen anyone who was not right with the church who continued to enjoy spiritual blessing as he should. If someone does not want to go along with the church, it is better for that one not to be involved with the church. But as soon as someone touches the church in a negative way, that person will suffer loss. In saying this I am not pronouncing a curse on anyone. On the contrary, I am simply being faithful to speak the truth. History proves that it is not a profit for anyone to seek to damage the church or rebel against it.
I would urge all the saints, especially the young brothers and sisters, never to be negligent or careless concerning sin. Never think that sin is an insignificant matter. We all should stay away from sinful things. Sin causes our fellowship to be broken, it causes us to have no peace in our conscience, and it may even cause the loss of physical life. If sin does not lead to one’s physical death, it will certainly cause spiritual death. Therefore, let us learn to fear God regarding sin.
May we also learn to become deep in fellowship with the Lord. If we are deep in our fellowship with the Lord, we shall be those who are in the Lord’s heart and know His will both concerning ourselves and concerning the fellow members of the Body. Then we shall be able to help those around us and even impart life to them out of the Lord and by the Holy Spirit. This means that we shall be able to be a channel for the divine life to flow out of us and into our fellow members.
Recently I was asked if all sickness is due to sin. As we consider human experience and spiritual experience, we must say that not all sickness is due to sin. Here I would emphasize the fact that by the Lord’s mercy and grace, we are His children possessing His life and enjoying His nature. Now we need to be careful about everything related to our daily living: eating, drinking, contacting people, spending money. If we are careful concerning all things, then we shall do our part to be preserved from becoming sick or weak. In every way—spiritually, psychologically, physically, and materially—we need to be proper with God and man. In particular, we should not willingly and knowingly do anything that is against the Lord. It is extremely serious knowingly to go against the Lord.